WASHINGTON – Washington, D.C. is enacting a juvenile curfew starting Saturday night, after “weeks of disorderly juvenile behavior,” Mayor Muriel Bowser announced.
The curfew comes just one day after massive fights broke out in Navy Yard on Halloween night.
What we know:
Bowser’s office said the curfew was a direct response to the hundreds of kids fighting in Navy Yard Friday night.
The curfew will go into effect at 11 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. on Sunday, and will continue nightly until Wednesday, Nov. 5, Bowser’s office said.
Bowser’s Emergency Order will also allow Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith to designate parts of the city as “high risk for disorderly conduct by youths,” allowing her to implement a curfew as early as 6 p.m. Smith will also be able to declare an area as a curfew zone in areas where eight or more juveniles have or may soon gather.
Special evacuation zones
Dig deeper:
Saturday night, Smith announced four of those “Special Juvenile Curfew Zones,” one in Navy Yard, one near the U Street Coridor, one at the Banneker Recreation Center near Howard University and one at Union Station.
The Navy Yard zone is between Interstate 695 and the Anacostia River on the north and south and 8th Street SE and South Capitol Street SE to the east and west.
The zone in the U Street Corridor will be between V Street and Vermont Avenue NW in the north and T Street NW in the south, and Florida Avenue and 9th Street NW in the east and 15th Street from T Street to V Street NW in the west.
The zone at Banneker Recreation Center is between Euclid Street NW and W Street NW to the north and south, and Georgia Avenue NW and 9th Street NW to the east and west.
The zone at Union Station is between H Street NE and D Street NE to the north and south, and 3rd Street NE and North Capitol Street NE to the east and west.
Curfew enforcement in these areas will begin at 6 p.m. nightly for the duration of the curfew.
The backstory:
Over the summer, the D.C. Council enacted another curfew using an emergency amendment. According to the Mayor’s Office, that curfew reduced “fights, violence and vandalism by juveniles and youth” throughout the district.
That emergency expired in early October, after which, according to the Mayor’s Office, “the District experienced an immediate increase in disorderly conduct and youth violence.”
Earlier this week, the D.C. Council held a hearing to discuss potentially extending the curfew.
The Source: Information in this story is from Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower’s office and previous FOX 5 DC reports.
Crime and Public SafetyWashington
